


The Three Before

by RioGascar



Category: Amphibia (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29193822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RioGascar/pseuds/RioGascar
Summary: Anne Boonchuy, Marcy Wu, and Sasha Waybright. 3 best friends brought together in Amphibia by unlikely circumstances thanks to the Calamity Box. 3 friends trying to get home. What they do not know is they were not the first group to enter Amphibia.
Kudos: 5





	1. The CD

## Synopsis:

Anne's been saved by the Plantars from Curator and family examines the retro music player. Anne explains some technology and Sprig unveils another item he snagged 

###### Amphibia - Present Day

“ **ARGH MY EYES** ” Hop-Pop screamed out in pain as the skip-mans ultra-violet beam dug into his pupils lighting the synapses aflame. The elderly frog started blinking rapidly attempting to clear the blinding beam from his vision. After a short while the burning feeling subsided and his sight returned to see a guilty looking human staring at him like her hand was caught in the beetle jar.

Anne winced as she stared at the frog’s pupils turn a heavy red hue and snaped the case close to deactivate the makeshift weapon. “oooh sorry HP. Didn’t think this old thing would still have that much juice.” She flipped the device around and looked for any information on its creation date. Underneath a layer of some dried brown gunk, she could read out a year, **Manufactured in China, 2002**. Anne gave an appreciative whistle to accommodate this information.

“This thing is older than me!” She attempts to continue studying the device for more information when suddenly it is snatched out her hands from Sprig who tried to continue the deciphering.

“What’s a er-uh Chi nah?” the young plantar asks as he continues to examine the device. Anne suppresses a giggle at the frog’s mispronunciation. “it’s Chia Nuh, its where a bunch of our human stuff is made, like my phone.” She quickly removes the kitty case on her phone to reveal the back with the almost boisterous label **“Designed in California, Assembled in China, 2018”**. 

“What’s a California?” Polly asks as she stares at the strange box, her eyes glimmering to know more.

“It’s Cali- oh” Anne’s brain caught up with the infant’s words and shut down her correction. “It’s where I’m from, or well where I lived. It’s this big place with a bunch of celebrities and this placed called “Hollywood” where a bunch of our movies are made.” The human states matter of factly.

Sprig and Pollys eyes both lit up like Christmas lights upon realizing they were friends with a famous human. “Say what? You’re famous Anne!” they both shouted in unison.

The human could feel her body heat rise and slowly help thaw out the wax faster as the 2 hopped up and down in front her excited at the prospect. “No no, I’m not famous. I just uh well, happened to live in the same place as famous people?” The glimmering eyes faded away along with Anne’s rise in temperature.

“Well Anne that’s all well and good that your Famous Humans can make blinding laser beams, But a weapon like this too dangerous.” Hop-Hop interjects as his vision is cleared and no longer burns as if he’s stared into the sun.

Anne attempted to hold in her laughter but failed. “Hop-Pop, it’s not a weapon, it’s a music player!” she half-shouted half wheezed out. This revelation only confused the Plantars more.

“But Anne theres not even any instruments on this thing? How can it play music? Do we have to blow into it? Is the laser part of the instrument?” Sprig says as he bends the case probably past its normal ability trying to test his theories.

Anne quickly snatches it back from the little Plantar and closes the lid, hoping the tray is still intact. “No silly. You put a “CD” in it and then you would hit this button here to play it” she mimics the motion trying not to touch the button and possibly waste its battery. The Plantar’s all oh as they finally understand, all except one as Sprig raises his hand.

“uh Anne, you still haven’t told us what a C D is.” Sprig continues prying the human for more information about her home-world.

_The teenage girl had to stop herself from belting out a joke only she would get._

“Well, how should I know? These were before my time. Like way before. This kinda stuff is Marcy’s deal, she loved old nerdy stuff like this back home.” The human continues to examine the near ancient device and notices something. “Hey, theres a record button here too. You could even record your own stuff on to the cd as well” she lets out an annoyed sigh. “Now if only we had one.”

They sit quietly mourning the loss of new technology until they hear a loud cough from sprig.

“Would a CD happen to be something like this?” The young frog pulls from his jacket a thin circular disc with a label plastered on the bottom. “Before you ask, the Curator had it on a shelf next to it. It looked important so I snatched it too”. He examines the label and lets out a gasp. “Anne, I think you were right. This belongs to Marcy. Look they even wrote their Initials on it.” He turns the disc to show the human excitedly.

Anne grabs the CD and gets more questions then answers from staring at the label. “uh, this can’t be Marcys. No way” she continues to stare into the disc hoping to gleam more answers from it.

“Why not?” the whole trio asks, confused.

“Because Marcy’s last name is Wu. It starts with a W, not a V. and Mar-Mar does NOT make typos.” Anne states as she reveals the label in its messy handwriting along with a hand-drawn skull sticking off the side.

_Property of M.V._


	2. The Boys

#### New York City – July, 2003

_Fuel, check.  
Flaps, check.  
Engine, double check.  
Landing Gear, check-a-rino.  
Seat Belt…check.  
Instruments, check.  
_

“Pre-flight check complete. Tower this is Valiant Moose, clear for take-off?”  
“Roger VM, you are clear for take-off. Have a safe flight.”  
“Copy that. Will ascend to 10,000 ft and re-establish radio contact.”  


For several moments theres no response from the radio as the craft ascended into the air over the New York skyline. Only after getting over the cloud cover and into the blue seas did Moose get a message.

“Roger Matt…uh I mean Moose this is tower. Wondering if there will be snacks on the flight.”  
Moose was only temporarily flustered and spoke calmly into the 2 way.  
“Tower this is Moose, I told you to get some earlier. Now cease any banter.”  


_  
Several more moments of silence passed as the airspace around Moose’s Floatplane began to darken and thunder could be seen in the distance. A bolt flashed across the screen and several seconds later his seat shook…wait what?  
_

Snapped rather forcefully out of his “pilot seat” Matt spun his chair around and removed his headphones and stared out at his “co-pilots”. 

“ugh finally, is Captain Vale back on earth? Do we need to hit the flight attendant button?” he jokingly remarks as he adjusts his glasses from his lengthy yellow hair.

“Yeah man, that was getting kind of weird. Do you wanna talk about it? Maybe over some in-flight snacks?” The other boy brings his hands up to his Tan face to cover up his laughter.

“har har. Now what did you want? I’m trying to fly.” Matt gestures back to his plane as he watches it get struck by lighting and the blood red text flys across the screen.

**GAME OVER**

Matt stares at the screen for several seconds as his face gets more and more red and the laughter behind him grows. He spins his chair back around facing away from his flight stick set-up to stare at his 2 friends struggling to breath.

“Go ahead, get it all out. See if I’ll help you with your homework next time when your dumbasses are stuck.” He threatens mostly jokingly. 

The blonde boy recovers first and turns on the puppy dog eyes Matts known for years. “Aw, come on Matty don’t be like that. We’re sorry we ruined your VR sim thing. We just can’t Frag people online, can you please fix it mr smarty pants?”

Matt rolls his eyes and gets up from his desk. “Alright alright you suck ups, what did you two do this time? I swear Alex if you got me banned im really gonna stop helping you with homework.” Matt stares daggers into the Latino boy, this was not a joke.

Alex raises his hands up in defense “hang on there, why is it always me? What about four-eyes over there?” he points to the blond as he sinks back into his beanbag and tries to hide.

All that is met with Alex’s acquisition is a deadpan stare followed by facepalm. “Really, Alex, Really? Thomas? The kid who bleeps his own swears?” the blonde boy whips his head at the dark-skinned one and utters a defense.

“I do fu---duging not.” The defense was not very solid and all 3 of them could tell.

“Alright, alright fine you two bad-asses. What’s the problem?” Matt says as he scootches down off his desktop and onto the floor next to Alex’s console he plugged into his room.

“Well, we’re trying to play that Unreal game online but its won’t work for some reason. Maybe its busted? Should we tell your mom to get off the phone?” Alex mutters as Matt stands up and examines the console.

“No, that’s for Dial-up man. We’re living in the 2000’s, not the 90’s anymore” Matt shudders as he remembers the dark times. He turns the box around and notices the issue.

_The wires not plugged in._

_How do these two function without him.  
_

“uh, Alex. When you brought it into my room, What wires did you plug in?” he asks already knowing the answer. “Well. I brought the whole box with me and took all the stuff out. I hooked up power and that video cord. I didn’t even need to ask you what cord went to what thing this time.” Alex states as he crosses his hands triumphantly.

“So, all the ones that were in the box?”

“Yep”

“But not the one that was already plugged in the wall.” He gestures to the white cable sitting next to Thomas.

“uh” the Latino did not like where this was going.

“The one that is specifically installed into my room to provide me with a DSL connection for my PC.” Here we go.

“uh not ex-“ the boy was cut off as Matt began his speech.

“The one that puts out 3 Megabits per second and is a constant upload speed provided by our ISP?” Alex decides to put a stop before another technobabble rant occurs. he already learned too much about thermal paste from when he tried to help Matt put in his new PC part.

“no I did not plug in your JR-47 into the web port” He watches as Matt inhales and holds it for several seconds before exhaling. 

“RJ-45, but close enough” Matt plugs it in and like magic the games online boots back up. “There, enjoy your 1 mega bit a second death-match with slurs belted at you at a faster speed than our internet” he spins his chair back around and pops on his headphones while adjusting his seat and flight stick.

The 2 boys just briefly stare at Matt trying to understand what he said but concede and get back to their game. “thanks Matt, really don’t know what we’d do without ya.” Alex teases as he hands Thomas a controller.

“Perish probably.” Thomas states as he launches a missile at Alex’s character.

**“HEY! NO FAIR, ROCKETS WERE TURNED OFF!”**

_The flight was going smooth this time. No cloudy weather, no storm clouds in sight. All is peaceful and yet._

Matt lowers the dial on his volume for the game a tad, enough to hear snippets of their conversation and still play his game.

“Hey Tommy?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you understand --- of what Captain ------- is saying?”

Matt has his hand on the audio about to bring it to maximum volume.

“Not really, ----- not important” Thomas replies as he sneaks a frag in.

“Whys that?” Alex mutters as he respawns.

Matt deafens his audio now to fully listen.

“Well, would he understand your stuff about music theory and chord progression?” 

“No, not really. That guy doesn’t even buy CD’s. he bums em off me, doesn’t support the arts man.” Alex points over to Matt’s Skip-Man. 

“Sure, but again that’s not what’s important. What’s important isn’t that we understand each other’s interests. What is important is that we let him talk about it.” Thomas pauses the game and sits forward in his chair as he begins his own speech. 

“If we don’t let him talk about the things he likes, he’ll feel like he shouldn’t be interested in those things. He wants to talk a bunch of tech stuff, I say let him, others certainly don’t let him, so we as his friends should.” the golden-haired boy finishes his heartfelt speech with a chuckle “and hey, maybe his smarts will rub off on us.”

“Maybe, but he’ll still let us bum off his homework, right?”

“It’s what friends do. Even when its against the rules, we look out for each other. It’s how it’s always been.” Thomas replies as he sets the controller down.

The Latino ruffles through his spiked hair as he processes what is said. “Yeah. OH, speaking of music. With it being your 13th soon, I got you a little something.” Alex ruffles through his bag and pulls out a case of CDs still in their packaging. “Uh, I didn’t have time to wrap it, so here ya go. Happy birthday Amigo.”

Thomas stares at the discs for a short time confused. “uh, thanks. Is it like an album or something?”

Now its Alexs time to shine. “Nah man. It’s a set of blank CDs. You can record whatever you want on them. Music, transcripts” he pauses for a second to stare at Matt. “Maybe download some tunes from the internet and burn it on to the discs, stick it to the system man.” Alex emphasizes the end with a heavy drawl as he turns his gaze back to Thomas. “Or maybe get all that writing in your journal put it into audio format. Back that shit up man” He mentions nudging the closed and locked journal next to Thomas’s back-pack. 

Thomas grabs his journal and places it in his backpack hastily, as if he’s hiding some dark secret. “No no no, that stuff is for me only. I don’t want others hearing me talk about my uh…writing. It’s bad enough when someone sees me writing and takes a peek.” The meek boy continues to defend his coping strategy as his face goes more and more red. “Besides, I don’t even have a CD player.” he tosses the heat over at Matt as he points to his empty CD player.

Both Alex and Matt facepalm as they forget about their friends home-life. “Right sorry, maybe I should have gotten you a CD player first.”

“But then I’d have no CDs to play it with” Thomas chuckles as he lightens the mood.

“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” Alex tosses his hands in the air before a sudden idea occurs to him. “Hey, what if we make group recordings?”

Now it is the other twos turn to be confused. “like music? Uh, I don’t think anyone wants to hear me sing and you’ve seen Thomas try and play your guitar.” The boy in question looks slightly offended. “Hey, trying to play guitar left-handed is really hard. The whole worlds made for righties dude.” He complains as he spins his pencil in his dominant hand.

Alex leans back as he lets out a sigh “dude theres plenty of leftie guitar players. But no that’s not what I mean. I mean let’s record group stuff, like important dates or things we don’t want to forget. Maybe in 10 or like 16 years we could listen back on this as adults or something.” The Latino’s specialty was not being heartfelt, but the 2 boys throw up their hands in a mix of acceptance and defeat.

“Alright, fine. Let’s use my Skip-Man. Hand me that sharpy over on the table. Lets not open those discs yet, I got some empty CDs.”

######  Amphibia, Present Day 

Anne Continues to tinker with the player as Hop-Pop steers the Fwagon onto their next destination, Newtopia. The human succeeds in finally snapping the battery cover off and sees they’re in some rough shape. One of them looks ready to blow and the other one is leaking some weird yellow gunk from either end.

“Ew, gross. I hope this thing can still work. Been dying to listen to something else.” Anne recalls as she’s browsed her entire music library over a dozen times during her short stay in Amphibia, she’d kill for some variety. She opens her backpack and grabs her calculator.

“Sorry little guy, but math equations won’t do me much good here.” She apologizes as she removes the cover and rips the life-force out from the number cruncher. Anne tosses the sick batteries into a zip-lock bag from her pack and stores it away, she doesn’t want to bring her worlds pollution to Amphibia.

“Alright now lets see what tunes are on here. Hopefully its not like death metal or something.” Anne presses the play button and closes her eyes in suspense. For a short time, she hears nothing but static from the headphones. She begins to worry that maybe the player itself is busted until a voice pips in.

“Is it recording?” a light voice scratch from the voice catches Annes ears, cluing her in to the possible age of the voice.

“Yeah, the red light means its going.” A nasally voice joins in. 

“Alright, uh well who should go first?” the same voice joins back in.

“Maybe birthday boy should be leading?” The nasal voice continues as they clear their nose.

“Fine, uh lets see. An intro.” A 3rd voice much softer enters in.

“Its uh July 22nd, 2003. New York-” a voice interrupts

“Dude, we don’t need a auto-biography. Just get on with it.”

“Alright alright, fine. 2003, New York City, uh Earth.”  


There is a solid 10 seconds of silence which makes Anne think the recording stopped. 

  
“What do you mean Earth? What are we explaining this to aliens?” a mocking tone before its cut off.

“Alex lay off, this was your idea anyway.”

“GUYS, who cares. Its for us anyway. Let’s just say whatever it was we were gonna say.”

“Okay. Well im Thomas Peters Age 12.”

“Alejandro Mancera, 13 and looking fine.”

“Matt Vale, 13 and the brains of the group.”  


The voices continue bickering for a bit more until who Anne can guess was Thomas gets them back on track. 

  
“This recording is to uh, proclaim our Friendship. Through hell or high water we’ll always be together. Because that’s what friends do. When we’re older I hope we’re still friends. Our friendship will stand the test of time and the cruelty of the world.”  


The audio starts getting distorted and Anne has trouble telling the sources of each voice. 

  
“ **ITS ALL YOUR ----.** ” a cracked voice screams out as the headphones struggle to not peak the audio.

“Im so damn ----, and now ---- is sick.” A nasally voice utters as they inhale heavily.

“ **WHAT DID YOU DO ----!** ” a fiery voice screeches into Annes ears as she goes to remove the headphones before the last line.

“Im all alone now. They’re ----.” This voice she could not tell the origin.  


It then cuts out as Anne hears a guitar being strummed in a slow pattern accompanied by some humming until. It continues for the rest of the recording until it loops. 

Anne removes the headphones and stares down at the player. 

“What happened to these guys?” 


End file.
